The “Deep State.” A term that sends shivers down the spine of anyone who views democracy as a vulnerable marvel. Lately, the Deep State has been used as a cudgel by Israel’s present right-wing government to explain why it hasn’t succeeded over the past 50 years (since 1977) in implementing most of its policies.

To a certain extent, their claim is correct. But they have things backwards. It turns out that around the world, almost across the board, it is the so-called “Deep State” that has protected democracy and the various civil rights that its citizens have come to cherish. So before getting to the Israeli case, here’s a very brief survey of some other countries where the Deep State came under attack. (If you want to dig deeper, read the NY Times’ article from mid-May: “Actually, Democracy Dies in H.R.”

From 1930s Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, to 1970s Argentina’s military junta, all the way to Victor Orban’s Hungary in the 2010s, the same pattern was repeated: those governments recruited into the bureaucracy what can best be called “Loyal Losers” i.e., people whose professional or intellectual abilities were so low that they couldn’t find gainful employment in any other organization. With their very livelihood at stake, these individuals were willing to do whatever the government demanded – torture and murder among the most egregious actions: mobile killing Einzatzgruppen in Germany, secret police NKVD in........

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